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ODI Round-Up: Zimbabwe and Australia take 2-0 Lead

Posted: August 14, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cricket
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 Srikrishnan Chandrasekaran

 14 August 2011


The two one-day series in Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka are both two matches old with Australia and Zimbabwe taking 2-0 leads. Here is a round-up of the first two games of both series.
Zimbabwe Vs Bangladesh:

Brian Vitori has started his international career with a bang against Bangladesh

A young boy, Vitori, being 21 years of age made his debut in the one-off Test for Zimbabwe, started off with two consecutive five wicket hauls. He has got decent pace, and more importantly, he moves the ball away from the left-hander and into right-hander. He might be the youngest cricketer to take 5 wickets haul in his first two matches. Utseya on the other hand continued to show his good skills of spin bowling. Taylor started off well with two tosses in a row and put the opposition in and bowled them to a reasonable total which they chased without much difficulty. The Zimbabwe batsmen Sibanda and Masakadza have shown a lot of character and played good cricket against Bangladeshi spinners to take their team to victory. This is a very good start to the 5 match series for Zimbabwe. The top order of Bangaldesh team collapsed on both the matches and middle order / lower order players made a decent progress to put up a score to fight for. The captain has made good progress in both batting and bowling on the 2 matches. Team Zimbabwe is just a win away from their ODI series win. Bangladesh have put lot of work to give a fight on the upcoming matches.

Sri Lanka Vs Australia:

Mitchell Johnson has starred with the ball for Australia in the ODIs in Sri Lanka

Dilshan won 2 consecutive tosses, elected to bat but his batsmen haven’t been able to put up a decent score against top class Austraklian bowling on good batting tracks. Australia has dominated the series so far with their strong pace bowling attack and their batsmen showing good skill in handling the pace and spin of Sri Lanka. Senior batsmen in the Sri Lankan line-up are yet to score big runs in the series. Once again in the lower order Kulasekara shows lot of potential as a batsmen. On both occasions Australia won the match with lot of overs and wickets spare. Sri Lanka need to work really hard to win the series from here (0-2). They can probably try promoting Mahela as opener and push Tharanga down to no. 4. They can also give a chance to Charma silva / Samaraweera instead of Chandimal. Australia lost both the T20 matches, but have come back very strongly on the ODIs. The bowlers have done a fantastic job so far which has eased their batsmen to bat without the pressures of chasing big totals.

Let’s hope for a come back from both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the upcoming matches. The Asia teams are really struggling in last 2 weeks or so to put a decent score / fight against their opposition. Not too much to cheer about for the Asian teams.

Day 3 Edgbaston: Alastair Cook’s Near Triple Ton Punishes India

Posted: August 13, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cricket, India in England 2011
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 Goutham Chakravarthi

 13 August 2011


The wonderful former deputy editor of The Wisden Cricketer, Emma John, would have described Alastair Cook’s innings something on the lines of “mulishness, obduracy, bloody-mindedness.” And a very tired Indian side would be thanking their stars that this wasn’t a timeless Test in which case you could switch on your TV sets a week later and you would still find Cook batting.

Alastair Cook displayed enormous concentration in his marathon knock

They say cussedness is a quality much admired in a Test cricketer. His strength of mind and discipline in executing his brand of batting has made him into a remarkable accumulator of runs. Rahul Dravid, a man who is renowned for grit, determination and stone walling would much appreciate the qualities he sees in Cook. Chandepaul, Steve Waugh would approve of Cook. Heck, even Geoffrey Boycott would have had a crush on him today!

India’s docile bowling never looked like getting an English wicket at any time. That they managed to reign the scoring of the English batsmen with Cook only scoring three boundaries till tea suggested that they at least bowled to their plans. There was still a bit in the wicket for the bowlers when they got it right, but Cook’s insatiable appetite for accumulating runs coupled with his determination to play long hours in turn ensured that he and England crossed many milestones in the day – the highest individual score at Edgbaston and England’s highest score in an innings in a non-timeless Test – being just two of them.

If stodge and defiance described Cook’s innings, Morgan was more fluent and ensured that he made the most of the reprieves given to him by the Indian fielders on Thursday. To the calm, determined, predictable methods of Cook at the other end, Morgan was the modern-day young batsman – unorthodox, skillful and improvising. Between the two of them and Ian Bell, one would think England will see a lot of runs being scored for them. Morgan went trying to loft Raina over Sehwag in the covers and his dismissal ensured India kept England batting for longer than they would have wanted.

Eoin Morgan made the most of his two reprieves with a hundred

India on the other hand looked surprisingly better with the ball and in the field. There was better execution of plans though they never looked like getting Cook or Morgan out. They might as well have sent a bowling machine to the middle to bowl to them and nothing would have changed. Knowing fully well that England would run them ragged, they did their best to not let England get away. Their lack of potency has been a great matter of concern for the captain. It has again only shown how much Zaheer Khan means to this team.

England have had another outstanding day. With Sehwag lasting all of two balls in two innings, it has put to rest all theories of him perhaps being the saviour at least for this Test. England have again exposed another cricketer being rushed back into top flight cricket with little match practice. May be there is a lesson in it to players as much as to administrators.

There is plenty of time in this Test and the ball still moved a bit under overcast conditions for the English quicks. With the wicket now also keeping low sporadically, and with Swann and Pietersen getting it to spin big, it is but a matter of time before time is up for India in this Test.

India will hope to put their best batting display of the tour in its second innings. They have collectively not scored 294 in any of their innings. It has been Cook’s Test so far. India will do well to make England and Cook bat again in this Test.

Edgbaston, Day 1: Dominant England Ruthless In Execution

Posted: August 11, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cricket, India in England 2011
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 Goutham Chakravarthi

 11 August 2011


This is getting farcical. It has got to count among the most lop-sided “big” series ever. The chasm between the sides widened further with England sitting pretty already at the end of the first day. You would get to understand the difference in the performance of both sides should you pick a combined best XI based on individual performances this series. Barring Rahul Dravid, none of the Indians will warrant a place in it. Such has been England’s dominance.

Broad sent Sehwag back off his very first ball en route to a 4 wicket haul

India’s best cricket over the last decade has been built as much on their ability to bat big in tough conditions. Always the team has found players who got in getting big runs with support from the others. Over the last two months, big runs have eluded all but Dravid. Partnerships and collective performances have eluded this batting order. Batsmen who have got their eye-in have thrown it away and their approach to good tight bowling has been pedestrian.

It was not much different on Wednesday in cold Birmingham on a green surface. It looked greener than both Lord’s and Trent Bridge, but offered much less to the quicks. Skillful Broad sent Sehwag back with his first ball, but only to see Gambhir and Dravid play out the first hour with little difficulty. Runs flowed and England’s bowlers were kept at bay till Gambhir perished to a loose drive. He knew he had done the difficult bit and would be cursing himself for throwing away a good start.

Rahul Dravid has looked in a different league to all Indian batsmen this series. His application was top notch yet again and looked set for his third straight hundred in consecutive Tests when he got going with pleasing drives. On the other end, a very unsure Sachin Tendulkar made a very scratchy 1 and got out playing a poor shot. Lack of runs off his blade has hurt India badly in this series. Even he, when he has got starts this series has not been able to convert them to big scores, a bane of Laxman too this series. Once again, he got out when he looked good for plenty more.

Raina has been worked over by a very skillful bowling side that specializes in exposing technical and mental shortcomings. His inadequacies with short-pitched bowling has wrecked his footwork and dented his confidence. Anderson set him-up with the predictability of a David Dhavan movie story line. With India facing embarrassment, it was left to a skipper who finds his best when he is aggressive and an unlikely partner in Praveen Kumar to thwart the English for 14 overs to bump India’s overall tally above 200.

Credit has to be given to England’s relentless precision in executing their plans. They have rarely made it easy for the visiting batsmen. Their plans have been backed by ruthless execution. They have been remarkable as a bowling unit with each bowler making a mark sometime or the other. Not only have they not let India score 300 yet in any of the innings, they have seldom let them have it easy even for an hour. They have broken the confidence of the batting order and the scars may run deeper with long term implications for some of the Indian youngsters.

England is perhaps just another good day away from getting into an unbeatable position in this Test. Given the withdrawn body language of the Indians in the last session, expect England to come hard and break the spirit early on day 2 and dominate the rest of the day. It will take something extraordinary for India to come back into this test and England will do well not to take the foot off the pedal just yet.

Preview Edgbaston: Perspective India

Posted: August 10, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Cricket, India in England 2011
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 Goutham Chakravarthi

 10 August 2011


The week leading to this Test would have given the time the team needed for introspection irrespective of an average outing against Northants. Zaheer Khan’s absence will sting India more than the cold weather of Birmingham.

The riots in England will have disrupted the preparations further. Not that it has been less chaotic on the cricketing front – with the latest expose by Outlook leaving Shastri and Gavaskar to fend off more spiteful media bumpers. Injuries and fitness issues have gotten worse and their returning champion has had less than ideal preparation – worse, still, he doesn’t know if can withstand a Test match without a fully functional shoulder. And given that not much grass will come off the strip, it has got many media pundits predicting a white wash just half-way into the series.

India will hope for big runs from Tendulkar and Laxman

India likes chaos. It even thrives in chaos. Much like our traffic discipline and road habits and the enormous social pressures of day-to-day life, when survival seems impossible, there is calm in approach and over achievement in results in such situations. A mentally fragile team with bite less than a toothless man and bowling dependent on a maverick swinger from days of yore is seemingly stepping-up into a heavy weight boxing bout with both hands tied behind its back. But there is hope that it will survive the round.

Rahul Dravid, Praveen Kumar and Ishant Sharma have been admirable throughout the series and will long for better support from their team mates. The team will look to its proven champions again to step-up and show the way. It might not be a surprise if they opt to bat on a pitch many would argue best suited for cows.

Their batting has been a huge let down. Their opening pair has been a Russian roulette and their batsmen have changed batting positions more than an Indian politician would change parties. Rahul Dravid has been selfless, but poor preparation and inability of their other batsmen in countering the English bowling and conditions has left their honest bowling with the challenge of passing 12th standard Mathematics examination with 10th standard preparation.

Laxman and Tendulkar will be cursing not to have converted their starts. If anything, they would hope that the return of Sehwag and Gambhir at the top buys them some shield against the new ball and ensure that when the second new ball is taken, one of them is around to tackle it. India’s lower-middle order has looked as clueless against English pace and nip like the young Australian batsmen did against Ajantha Mendis on Monday on a typical sub-continental wicket. Test match cricket can be cruel on the best and greatest of men. And India will benefit if England turn-up expecting India to roll over just because it is a green top. Much of their players spent the week in Europe on a holiday. Perhaps fishing. Indian bowlers will hope they fish outside-off stump when they bat against them.

India’s batting order finally looks in order with still the no.6 spot up for grabs. Captain Dhoni has tried his best to keep his car in the race only to see the wheels come off when he has needed to accelerate. He will hope for his car’s spare parts to be fully functional and operable so that he can plot a canny strategy to pip England to the chequered flag. He will be hoping that Sehwag can give him the extra gears he so desperately needs. It is all stacked against India. If they end-up surprising all by winning, just know that they thrive in chaos!

Preview: Australia – Sri Lanka ODI Series

Posted: August 10, 2011 by The CouchExpert in Australia in Sri Lanka 2011, Cricket
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 Srikrishnan Chandrasekaran

 10 August 2011


Australia will be under some amount of pressure after they lost their two match T20 series against Sri Lanka. Even though T20 is more full fledged action wherein any body can take over the game from any given point, the close finish on the 2nd match gives the home team an edge over Australia in the forthcoming ODI series.

Ajantha Mendis, who picked up 6 wickets in the match, has been included in the SL side for the ODI and Australia can hope to see a lot of this maverick spinner for the remainder of this tour. He has not been part of World Cup Final and didn’t play much in England. Mendis has got lot of variety and has given lot of trouble to Indian players when they visited SL last in 2008. Teams have learnt to play him much better over the years, but he will still be a handful for the younger Australian batsmen touring Sri Lanka for the first time.

Mesmerising Ajantha Mendis could take Sri Lanka to no.1 ODI ranking by the end of the series

The 50 over match require a fair amount of bowling and batting skills to win over the opposition. This series  will really of close contest as the fight between No. 1 and No. 2 in ODI cricket rankings. Both the team has got a good mix of experienced and young players. The challenge for Australia is how they can tackle against the spin attack of SL. Australia will focus towards winning the series to retain their No.1 spot on the other hand SL will look towards winning the series and moving on to No. 1 spot.

Players to watch out on the series from AUS:

Batting: Ponting, Watson and Hussey.

These 3 are real match winners and SL should come up with a different tactics to handle them. Ponting has scored over 1450 runs against SL, but has scored only 334 runs in the last 11 ODIs over the last 12 months period with 1 century.

Bowling: Lee, Bollinger. Bollinger

Players to watch oout on the series from SL:

Batting: Sangakkara, Dilshan, Chandimal.

Dilshan plays really well against pace bowling and Sangakkara is a real accomplished player who might turn the series for Sri Lanka with his bat.

Bowling: Mendis, Lakmal, Randiv. Mendis will most likey man of the series. Randiv and Lakmal  have bowled decently in the last series, and will hope to come up good in this home series.

Even though the sides have more of equal strength, Sri Lanka has an edge over Australia as it is their home series. Best wishes to both the teams and expecting a decent show from both the teams

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